The Hunter's Heart
by C-Alliance
Summary: AU Femslash. Ginny is a bounty hunter in a post apocalyptic Britan who has just been hired to track down Hermione by a corrupt buisness tycoon. However, jobs like these rarely go as planned.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This will be a Hermione/Ginny femslash story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

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><p>Everyone thinks bounty hunting is easy, and Ginny could never understand why. She couldn't even count the number of times she had run into some inexperianced wanabe hunter who always seemed to think they could master what took her nearly ten years of blood, sweat, and accidentally killing bounties in a matter of days. Case in point, she was currently squared off with one of the said inexperienced bounty hunters who had somehow managed to capture <em>her<em> bounty! The other bounty hunter, a younger looking man, was wearing what had to be brand new armor, not a scratch on it, brand new pistol, brand new pack, and brand new boots. In other words, a wanabe living off of daddies money.

Ginny on the other hand was wearing dark red armor with the picture of a griffin painted on the breastplate, which had various scratches and burns on it, dark red gloves, black boots, and an old hunting rifle that had tape in various places (but was in surprisingly good condition). Also, at the age of 25, she had been in this buisness for nearly eleven years, unlike her adversary who looked as though he started yesterday.

"This bounty's mine!" The male hunter shouted, waving his pistol around.

'Great, not only is he stupid, but he's a loud one too.' thought Ginny, 'I should just shoot him now, save him the trouble of getting shot by some raider later.' she sighed inwardly, "We can do this one of two ways, you can hand her over to me and walk away unharmed, or," she raised her rifle and aimed it at his head, "I can shoot you in the head and just take her away from your rotting corpse."

At this threat, the male bounty hunter looked as though he nearly pissed himself and hastly shoved the female bounty towards Ginny before he bolted in the opposite direction. "Oh thank you! Thank You!" The woman exclaimed as she flung herself at Ginny.

"I'm not here to save you," the woman's face almost instantly fell as Ginny said this, "I just didn't want that sorry excuse for a bounty hunter to take you in. Your my bounty to claim."

"You know, if you let me go, I could make it worth your while." The woman said in a flirtatious tone, batting her eyelashes suggestively and raising her shirt a bit. Luckly, Ginny was immune to such tactics, especially when they came from her bounty. She would not make that mistake again.

"After what you did, I'm suprised my client doesn't want you dead." Once again, the woman's face fell again as she was led, now in a shock collar placed around her neck, back to the nearby town so Ginny could get paid. As they were walking, they passed a burned out building with a poster that was amazingly still legable that said, 'The Jerries won't take us without a fight!' with a picture of a British soldier standing gaurd over England against a German soldier that looked poised to attack. The poster got her thinking about the state of the world, or at least, what once was the world.

Back in 1945, both the Americans and the Germans had managed to harness the power of the atom and mass produced nuklear bombs. Germany, with little interference from the Americans as they were more focused on there war with Japan than Germany, managed to conquer the rest of mainland Europe, North Africa and had holdings in the Middle east, were preping there bombers with this new weapon to strike at every major Allied holding within his reach. The United States seemed to have simalar goals in mind as they outfitted their bombers stationed not only in the U.S, but in Britan, newly conquered Japan, and India. It came as no suprise when not even twenty minutes after the first German bomber was spotted near Washington had the U.S scrambbled there own bombers, thus assuring that both sides would be destroyed in the ensuing nuklear armagedden.

Nearly a hundred years later, the world was still far from recovering from the nuklear exchange. England itself had broken down into squabbling nation-states vying for control of the island. Nation states like the Order, who had outposts in almost every major town in post-war England and some in France, and the Union, who had the largest stable territory on the island, including the bombed out ruins of London. Ruins in which Ginny and her bounty were now entering. Her client hadn't specifyied where excatly they would be meeting, just that she should walk through the western outskirts of the ruins and that they would find her. After about thirty minutes of walking around, a person in deep black robes covering their body and a black hood covering their face, appeared nearby, her contact from the Order.

Ginny hated dealing with the Order because of their tendency for odd meeting places and the way her contacts not only never spoke, but always seemed to be looking into her soul. Walking slowly towards her contact, she presented her bounty to the hooded figure, who in turn presented her with a bag of coins. Taking the bag of money from the hooded figure, Ginny watched as two more hooded figures appeared to take her former bounty from her and led her, kicking and screaming, deeper into the ruins. Ginny watched them for a few moments before turning and leaving, vowing, once again, to never accept a job from the Order again.


	2. Chapter 2

Ginny had decided that after her last hunt, she need a well deserved break for a bit before she went after another bounty, and what better way to take said break then to get plastered at a local drinking hole. After arriving in Haven, a small town near the ruins of Canterbury, she immediantly seeked out the local tavern to both get drunk and to hopefully find some gossip for a new bounty since she knew that by weeks end her, payoff from her last job would be spent. As she entered the local tavern, nearly all eyes in the tavern immediantly turned to meet her. Ignoring the stares, Ginny took a seat at the counter and ordered the strongest drink they had. After a while, one of the local drunks wandered, or more accurately, stumbled, over to the stool near Ginny.

"Hey there *_hic*_ beutiful." The drunk man slurred, "Need some *_hic*_ company later." the man attempted to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively, but only managed to cross his eyes and fall backwards off the stool.

Ginny eyed the man cautiously, spotting no weapons on him and determined him to not be a threat, "Sorry, but your not my type," she responded as the drunk man managed to get back on the stool, "I prefer the woman's touch." She then turned her focus back to her drink, hoping that the drunk man would now leave her alone.

"Come on," he slurred, "just one night."

'Guess not,' and with that she quickly pulled the stool out from under the drunk man, knocking him to the floor and put a foot on his chest before aiming her pistol at the man's head, "Let me put this in a way even you can understand, you see this gun," the man nodded, "if you come near me again, it's going to be the last thing you ever see. Do I make myself clear?" He nodded again and Ginny removed her foot from the man's chest, "Now get out." The man quickly got up off the floor and bolted out of the tavern.

After holstering her gun and turning back towards the counter, Ginny became vaguly aware that the seat to her left had now been taken by someone. "Do you always threaten people who hit on you?" The person next to her said.

Turning to examine the foolheaded idiot who was stupid enough to talk to her, she noticed it was a fairly tall man in his late forties in a light blue jumpsuit with a darker blue cape attached to it with light blonde hair and a smile that would make most girls swoon. Ginny was not one of those girls. "Go away." She said in a cold voice and sent the man a glare that would make most lesser men crap themselves. It almost worked, almost.

The man flinched a little, but continued to try and make small talk anyway, "The names Lockhart, Gilderoy Lockhart," He said in a charming voice that made Ginny want to puke. "and yours?"

"Don't make me kill you" she said as she reached for her pistol, "I really don't feel like wasting a bullet on your sorry ass."

"Alright, fine. Straight to the point then. My client has a job offer," Ginny barley moved, "A high paying job offer."

That got her attention. "How much?" She inquired.

"Ten thousand."

Ginny's eyes nearly popped out of her head, but she quickly put back on her stoney expression, "Who's the target?"

Lockhart's smile grew as he pulled out a photo of the target from his pocket on his jumpsuit, "The target is one Hermione Granger."

Ginny took the photo from the man, it was one of those moving photos that had become a lot more popular to the non-magical community after the war, and was immediately drawn to the woman in the picture, who appeared to be handing out flyers to random people. She had long, bushy brown hair, full, lush lips that just looked so kissable (at least to Ginny they did), and a toned, sleek body that Ginny was sure had been formed from years of scavenging and picking through ruins. However, all of these were nothing compared to her chocolate brown eyes that Ginny was sure she could get lost in if she wasn't careful. Pocketing the photo, she turned back towards Lockhart, "What did she do that makes her worth ten thousand?"

"I am afraid that's not for me to say," He said standing up, "All you need to do is bring her back in one piece and you'll be paid."

Ginny herself began to get up as well, standing face to face with the man, "I normally don't do jobs without some reason as to why, but ten thousand is just to good to pass up. Tell your boss they have a deal."

"Ah, good. Our informants say that she has apparently set up camp in Fringe."

Ginny looked confused, "If you know where she is, then why are you hiring me to get her?" Lockhart just smiled his stupid smile, 'That smile is really staring to piss me off.' she thought.

"It just wouldn't do for someone of my client's prestige to seem interested in such a lowly woman such as Granger." He said as he handed Ginny a peice of paper. "This paper has the location of the drop off point where you will bring back Granger, alive." Ginny took the paper from him and skimmed it over as Gilderoy turned away from her and left the tavern.

Ginny's eyes landed on one specific word on the paper and her whole body began shaking, 'Holy shit! I just accepted a job from the York Minister!'


	3. Chapter 3

'I can't believe I accepted a job from the York Minister.' Ginny thought as she walked along the old broken roads towards the distant Union town of Fringe. 'I should have just refused as soon as I found out, but ten thousand is just too good to pass up. I just hope I don't regret this further down the road.' The reason that Ginny was so apprehensive about this job was that the York Sydicate was notorious for it's slave network and mistreatment of it's citizens. Technically, the York Syndicate and the Union had an uneasy peace, but it was well known that all Union soldiers had orders to fire on any slavers they encountered, even if they were a member of the Syndicate. Why the Union hadn't stepped in and conquered York, thus putting an end to their slave network, was beyond her.

As Ginny continued to follow the broken road, she noticed an old sign on the roadside that used to say 'Nottingham, next exit', but instead had been spray painted over and now said 'Welcome to Fringe. Not responsible for your stupid ass if you forgot to bring a weapon.'

'Nice to see that the locals haven't lost there sense of humor.' Ginny chuckled as she neared the town. Fringe was known for it's lawlessness since it was so far from the Union's normal shere of influence and Union troops rarley traveled this far unless the York Sydicate was massing their own troops, which was a rare occurrence. 'Now then, lets see if we can't find Granger in this mess.'

It turned out that finding Granger would be easier then Ginny first thought. Her intended target was set up in the center of town, attempting to hand out flyers to any passersbys. Unfortunately, it seemed that she was having a poor go at it as nearly everyone was ignoring her and those that actually took a flyer usually gave it a quick once over before balling it up and throwing it to the ground. Her curiosity piqued, Ginny picked up one of the discarded flyers and read the headline, 'Stop the injustice! Put an end to the slave trade in York!' with a picture of a sickly looking woman in brown rags at the bottom of the flyer. After poketing the flyer, Ginny took a better look at her soon to be bounty. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a light red overcoat that was open near the top with a faded green shirt underneath and her hair was still just as long and bushy as when the photo she had seen was taken, however, Ginny still found herself captivated by the other woman's eyes. 'Damn her captivating eye's!' Ginny thought with a light blush, 'If she wasn't my bounty, I could definetly see myself gazing into those eyes all the time.'

Forcing herself to look away from the other woman's eyes, Ginny caught a glimps of a small stick-like object sticking out of the brunette's overcoat. It was a wand. 'Crap, she's a magic user.' Ginny herself was a magic user, but she gave up on that world after her brother Charlie was killed by a dragon when she was twelve. She could do simple spells, but not much else. 'Might as well get this over with before she notices that I've been watching her for the last ten minutes.'

Ginny managed to sneak around behind Hermione and had stealthy took the exposed wand from the brunette's overcoat and poketed it in one of her many pockets without alerting her. As soon as she did, Ginny cleared her throat to alert the other woman to her presence.

"Oh! Hello there." Hermione greeted, her cheeks going a bit red with embaressment at not noticing the other woman sooner. "Would you like a flyer?" She asked, holding out a flyer to Ginny

"No, thank you. I already read one." Hermione looked a little dejected at that, but quickly bounced back when she realized that the woman hadn't said she hated it.

"Are you interested in learning more about the injustice that the York Minister allows in his own nation?" She asked with a hopeful look.

'Cute' "Unfortunatly, no. I'm here to bring you to the York Minister. I'm a bounty hunter." Hermione went from hopeful to absolutly horrified as soon as the words left Ginny's lips.

"What! You-your joking, right?" The color had begun to drain from her face.

"No, I'm not. You have a bounty on your head large enough for me to retire after I bring you in." At this revelation Hermione reached into her coat, only to find nothing there and began to panic. "Looking for this," Ginny showed Hermione the wand she had stolen off her earlier.

"This isn't happining, this isn't happining." She said in a panic, before she tossed her remaining flyers at Ginny and bolted.

'Why do they always run.' Ginny thought with a sigh as aimed her left hand at the fleeing brunette before pressing a button on her wrist. A golden string shot out of her wrist and wrapped itself around the brunette, causing her to stumble. As soon as Hermione hit the ground, she began trying to wiggle out of her bonds. "You may as well stop struggling," Ginny said as she approched the now bound woman, "that string is made from some of the strongest material known to man, it's nearly unbreakable."

After placing a shock collar on the brunette, she untied her and stood her up. "Listen closely because I am not going to repeat myself," she waited until she was sure that her new bounty was listening, "If you try to run, the collar will shock you, if you try to struggle, the collar will shock you, if you try and attack me, not only will the collar shock you, but I will personally break your legs. Got it?" Hermione nodded, "Good. Now then," she cupped Hermione's cheek, "cause I wouldn't want to ruin such a lovely face." Suddenly, unable to resist, Ginny leaned in closer and placed a small kiss on the brunette's forehead. "Sorry, you were just too cute to resist."

"Cute enough to let go?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Close, but sorry, no." She said as she led her bounty out of the town and headed towards Syndicate territory.


	4. Chapter 4

'I have got to be one of the stupidest bounty hunter's alive.' Ginny had led her newly capturued bounty to a small clearing near the Syndicate border and had set up camp, intending to clear her head before taking her bounty to York. She was currently sitting against a burnt out car watching Hermione fidle with some loose grass looking extremly bored. 'I kissed her! Okay, so I kissed her on the forehead, but still! I'm not supossed to be attracted to my bounty. I'm just going to have to hope that these feelings go away after I turn her in. If I turn her in.' She added as an afterthought.

Unbeknownst to Ginny, while she was sorting through her feelings for a certain brunette, said brunette was starting to have doubts about her supossed captor. Eairlier, while Ginny was setting up camp, Hermione had noticed one of her flyers she had handed out in Fringe sticking out of one of the red-heads pocket. 'Why would she have one of my flyers? Maybe she really doesn't want to take me in.' She sighed at such a stupid thought, 'Yeah, and maybe goblins will share their vast wealth with the wastes. Might as well try and get to know my captor, if only to distract me from my inevitable fate when we reach York.' She stopped playing with the grass and turned her full attention to her captor. "So..."

Ginny immediately snapped to attention as soon as Hermione spoke up and stared at the brunette, as if daring her to say something.

Hermione figited a little under the intense stare, but managed to find the courage to speak up, "You know, I, um, never did get your name."

'So she wants to play this game, does she. Alright, I'll play.' Ginny's normally stone features turned into an amusing smirk before she answered, "Weasley. Ginny Weasley."

"Weasley, Weasley. Why does that name sound so familier?" Hermione pondered. The name sounded familer, like she should know it, but she was currently failing to grasp it.

Ginny snorted, "Not suprising. My father, Arthur, is a councilor for the Union, two of my brother's Fred and George have there own joke shop in New Canterbury, Percy is currently ass-kissing his way up the ladder in the Union government, and Bill is married to a Pari mayor, Fleur, I think her name was. Go ahead and take your pick." she listed off with disdain. Ginny never really got along with her brothers, save Charlie, but he was dead now, as much as she didn't want that to be true.

"No, none of them sound familar. Well, maybe the Joke shop owners." She mused. "Oh wait! Isn't one of your brothers a famous general in the Union?"

'Oh no, why does she have to know him.' "Ron." She said with as much hatred as she could muster.

"Yeah, I think thats him. Sounds like you don't like him."

"No, I don't. He disowned me along with Percy when I became a bounty hunter and mum still won't talk to me, not like I want to talk to any of them anyway." She sighed, she hated re-living the moment her family more or less disowned her, but she was determined not to cry, especially not in front of her bounty.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Hermione realized she had hit a sore spot and decided to try a change of topic, "Do you have any hobbies other than bounty hunting?"

"Hobbies, really?" She asked in disbelief. She leaned back into the car and let out a sigh, her previous thoughts temporarily discarded and thought a bit before responding, "Alright, lets see. I like taverns, especcially the ones in Trainyard. They're fun. Oh, and feral hunting is always fun."

"Feral hunting?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, you know, hunting down feral elves. The ones that are too far gone in the head to be saftley integrated into society and attack any traveller on sight." Ginny said.

"Thats terrible!" Hermione couldn't think of anything more horrible a fate than that.

"It's either kill them or become lunch for some feral. Plus, it helps me hone my skills. Nothing is a better motivater than having a rabid elf try to gnaw your leg off." Hermione was abolutly horrifyed at the thought of Ginny hunting down some poor little harmless house-elf, or at least harmless to someone who had never seen a vicious feral house-elf.

"Okay, my turn." Ginny suddenly said.

"Wh-What?"

"It's my turn to quiz you on useless crap now." Ginny though for a moment and decided on a simple question, "Okay, since you asked me about my family, I'll ask you about yours."

"Um, okay, well," Hermione was nervous. She hadn't spoken to her family in years, but not for lack of trying. "I'm an only child, kind of a rarity in the wastes, I know."

"Interesting. What about your parents? They would probably die of shock if they knew there little girl was hanging out in a scum pit like Fringe."

"Not really. I haven't spoken to my parents in years. Not since they, well, found out my preference for... for women." Hermione ended in a soft wisper that Ginny had to strain to hear. As soon as the words registered in her mind, she let out o small laugh.

"Well, at least I know my gaydar isn't malfunctioning." She said with a smile.

"It's not funny!" Hermione practically yelled. She didn't know what was so funny about her being disowned by her own parents.

"Relax sunshine, I was laughing at the situation, not at you being disowned." At that moment, Ginny remembered the wand she had taken from the brunette when she captured her, "What about your wand? There aren't many practicing magic users anymore."

"Well, um, I figured since I probably wouldn't want to sleep with a man at any point in my life, so I turned to magic, which I found out I could use when I was twelve, and began researching was to have a child with another woman through magic." She said proudly. Then remembered her situation and realised that she would probably never find her 'one.'

Ginny could feel herself finding a lot of respect for the brunette at the moment. Risking being shunned and hated by the world simply because she was using magic in the open was remarkable. Not even Ginny could say that she practiced magic in the open, she would lose at least half of her clientele if she did. She decided right then that she wouldn't turn Hermione in, not for ten thousand, not for a hundred thousand. However, she still had to pretend to try and turn her in and hope that the Syndicate would try and undercut her so she would have a good reason to not to give up the brunette.

"Look, lets get some rest. We'll head out in the morning." Ginny said suddenly. Hermione just nodded her head in acknowledgment. Ginny couldn't stand to see the defeated look on the brunette's face, so she said the only thing she could think of to try and cheer her up even a little, "Tell you what. If I don't like what the York Minister says, I'll... I'll take you with me. No matter what the Minister says or does."

Hermione's face broke into a small grin. She didn't really know why the hunter was trying to be nice, but she could admit that she felt a little better. "Thanks, that... that means a lot." With that, Hermione stood up and closed the distance between the two and placed a small, chaste kiss on the redheads lips before heading off to claim a sleeping area, leaving a stunned Ginny behind. 'Maybe I have already found my _one_.'


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of the trip to York was made in silence, with both women currently lost in thought. Ginny was torn bwtween her new found feeling for the brunette and her job. If she dropped her bounty, she could just wisk Hermione away and live happily, at least that's what she imagined would happen. However, her reputation as the greatest bounty hunter west of the Rhine would be ruined. She was torn. She couldn't just throw everything away for a dream that may or may not be, but she also couldn't in good conscience hand over someone who had done nothing but insult the Minister, at least thats all she figured the brunette had done from the few conversations they had. She just couldn't see the brunette doing anything more.

Hermione on the other hand was happier than she had ever been. Ginny's sort-of garentee that she would keep her out of the Minister's hands had put her in a great mood. She wasen't exactly sure how Ginny would do that, but she was confidant that she had some kind of plan. It never crossed her mind that Ginny really had no idea what she was going to do until they got to York. The only thing that really bothered her at the moment was Ginny's silence. They were nearly three hours from York and she hadn't said a word the entire time, which bothered Hermione just a little. However, she figured the silence was because of what was about to happen. It's not every day you meet the head of the York Syndicate.

About an hour from York, Ginny and Hermione were met by a couple of Syndicate troopers carrying high powered assault rifles who offered to escort them the rest of the way, saying that raiders had been making bolder moves in the area. It was apparent from the start that Ginny didn't trust them and about twenty minutes in, Hermione understood why. Despite the fact that they wore Syndicate armor, a jet black metal cuirass with a picture of a green snake wrapping itself around the midsection of the armor, it quickly became apparent that the two men were not Syndicate troops. The two men were leading them to a parking lot in front of what appered to be an old tank factory.

As soon as they entered the lot, Ginny quickly spotted three snipers standing on the roof of the old factory and about twenty different people dressed in various armors and clothes with each carrying a variety of weapons ranging from simple pistols to high caliber assault rifles. Ginny was sure that they were the same raiders that their 'escorts' had warned them about. The two raiders dressed as Syndicate troops led them to the center of the parking lot near some burnt out cars before turning around to face the two women.

"Well, it looks like we reeled in two more, eh Tompson?" Said the first raider to his compainion.

"Yup. Looks like it. Appears we even managed to get the famous Ginny Weasley." Said the other man, Tompson, as he swung his rifle over his sholder and began to take aim at Ginny. "Any last words before we make you a bloody smear on the pavement?"

"Yeah, just one." Before the man could blink, Ginny unholstered her pistol and shot the man in the head before grabbing Hermione and ducking behind the nearest burnt out car just as sniper shots ricocheted off the car. Re-holstering her pistol, Ginny decided to risk going for the dead raiders assault rifle and slowly crept out from behind the car that was being hit with a hailstorm of bullets. Just as she grabbed the rifle and began to creep back towards the car, she was hit on her side by one of the snipers. Cursing at her own stupidity, she quickly darted back behind the car, clutching her now bleeding side, she began firing blindly over the hood of the car, hoping to kill a few of the raiders before they were overrun.

Hermione, however, was in shock. She barely registered that Ginny pulled her behind a car as soon as she killed the raider and held back a gasp when she watched Ginny get shot as she foolishly went for that same raiders rifle. She watched as Ginny blind fired over the car and slowly bleed out and was sure that if she didn't get medical attention soon, Ginny would bleed to death. Suddenly, Hermione had a brillient idea. She could use her wand to fix up the wound.

"Ginny," She said, turning to Ginny who was still firing over the hood, "Do you still have my wand?"

Ginny looked at her dumbfounded, she couldn't believe she would bring up her wand now. "What! Why?" She yelled as she shot the other raider dressed as a Syndicate trooper who had tried to sneak up on them.

"Because! I can use it to heal you." Ginny continued to look at her like she was crazy. She could not, would not give an active bounty her weapon back. It was just plain stupid, even if she did have feelings for her.

"Are you crazy? Have you not noticed we are being shot at!" She yelled again.

"Please, just trust me. If we make it through this, I promise to give it back to you." Hermione pleaded, giving Ginny her cutest look to try and convince her.

"Gah! Alright, alright! Fine. Just... just don't ever make that face again! It's just not fair." Ginny said as she removed her bloodied hand from her wound, reached into her armor and pulled out the brunette's wand.

"Here," Ginny said as she handed Hermione her wand, "Just fix me quick."

"Eww, it's covered in blood!" She said as she took her wand from the still bleeding redhead.

"Well what do you expect! I'm dying over here and I can't exactly drop my weapon while were getting shot at!" As if to emphasize her point, a sniper shot ricocheted off the hood of the car, causing both women to jump a bit.

"Fine! Just... just hold still, alright." Ginny complied and stopped moving while Hermione pointed her wand at the wound and quickly used a simple healing spell to close up the wound and a vanishing spell to clear up the blood on her armor.

"That... Thats incredible." Ginny said as she ran her hand over her now closed wound, "I mean, I knew magic could be useful, but I never thought it could be _that_ useful."

Ginny was quickly brought out of her stuper when she heard more gunfire coming from the east. Figuring it to be more raiders, she slowly peeked past the side of the car and was shocked when she saw seven, heavily armed Syndicate troopers ripping right through the raiders line. At first, it seemed as though the raiders would try and fight them off, but that quickly changed when the three snipers were torn apart by Syndicate fire and those that wern't already dead, tried to flee from the area with mixed results.

"Shit! Quick, give me your wand." Ginny told Hermione as soon as she was sure that the raiders had been driven off.

"Now? I was hoping to try and clean off some of this blood." Hermione said meekly, holding up her wand with Ginny's blood still on it.

"No time! Do you have any idea what they will do when they see someone in a shock collar that's armed? I may as well shoot you now and save them the time!" Ginny said in a rushed voice. She did not feel like being caught with an armed bounty hiding behind a car.

"Fine," she said, handing the redhead her wand, "You didn't have to be so pushy though."

Ginny was about to respond, but was cut off as one of the Syndicate troopers came around the side of the car, demanding to know who they were.

"Relax," Ginny said, standing up and throwing her new rifle over her sholder. She was going to have to get a sling for it later. "We were on our way to see the Minister when these raider's ambushed us."

The trooper, a man with light blond hair an what seemed to be a permanent scowl on his face, eyed her cautiously, "Why? What buisness do you have with the Minister?"

"My buisness is my own." Ginny told him hotly, "You can either take us to him or stand aside. Your choice."

The trooper seemed to debate his options before he yelled to his fellow troopers to line up.

"Listen up you slags! We're going to escort these two ladies," He pointed to Ginny and Hermione, "to York. Any objections?" When nobody replied he continued, "Good. Now lets move out!"

The two women followed the seven Syndicate troopers, one of whom was limping a bit, and about a half hour later, they entered the capital of the Syndicate, York. The city was still mostly a bombed out ruin, but it was obvious that the inhabitants were slowly, but surely reclaiming it and had cleared away a good portion of debris along the outskirts of the city.

Almost as soon as they entered the city, they were approached by a man in jet black robes. Ginny noted his pale skin that contrasted with his robes, but the most disturbing features she noticed on him was not his skin, it was the two slits on his face where his nose would have been, like a snakes. Even though it had been a while since she had been in York, she was almost positive that he was the Minister.

"Ah, Lucius. I see you've brought guests." The pale man said to the trooper with light blonde hair who had been leading them.

"Yes milord. The redhead says she has buisness with you." Lucius said, pointing toward Ginny.

"Ah, yes." The Minister said as he walked over to the two women, "The bounty hunter. I am glad Lucius was quick enough to rescue you from those nasty raiders. I was afraid that he would not be able to reach you in time."

Ginny snorted, "You can't be serious. You mean to tell me that you knew we would be attacked by those raiders?"

"Oh, I am very serious." The Minister said, moving closer to Hermione. "You must be Hermione." He reached out and ran a hand over her cheek. Ginny could feel her blood begin to boil as he did.

'How dare he touch her!' She thought angrily. Suddenly, the Minister reached back and smacked Hermione, hard, knocking her to the ground and Ginny had to force herself not to lunge at the man and stranggle him.

"Now then," He said, turning back to Ginny as two of the troopers went to grab Hermione, "I believe your payment is in order, but first..." He pulled out a wand, pointed it at Hermione and yelled '_Stupefy'_ as a red stream of light came out of his wand, hitting Hermione squarly in the chest, causing her to crumple to the ground again.

At this point, Ginny lost it. She swung her rifle around, aiming it at the Minister while rushing towards Hermione's limp form.

"What did you do!" She yelled at him.

"I mearly stunned her. Curious that you would care." The Minister said as he rubbed his chin, pretending to be deep in thought, "Perhaps, you care more for your bounty than you led on." He paused as his troopers began surrounding Ginny who continued to aim at the Minister. "A shame. But then again, I never intended to pay you." He finished with an evil grin.

Before Ginny could react, she was hit in the back of the head by one of the troopers. The last thing she heard before blacking out was the Minister's evil laugh.


End file.
